Gas springs are widely used to counterbalance the engine compartment hoods, trunk lids, rear windows, and tailgates of passenger cars, station wagons, and vans to facilitate opening them and to hold them open at or near a fully open position. It is well known that the force outputs of gas springs vary with the temperature of the gas (Boyle's law); at low temperatures the gas spring produces a force that is significantly less than the force produced at high temperatures. It is necessary, therefore, to design the gas spring so that it produces a sufficient force to hold the hood, trunk lid or the like (hereinafter referred to as the "load") open at a suitably selected low temperature, for example, -30.degree. C. (Conventionally, the gas spring is designed to produce a force of about one to five pounds over the load at the hold-open position of the load at, say, -30.degree. C.) At high temperatures, the increase in the force output at the hold-open position may be as much as, say, 50 pounds, which means that the force required to move the load from the hold-open position toward closed ("handle load") is 50 pounds. A handle load of that magnitude is obviously undesirable.